Nursing receives $1.65 million grant to expand degree opportunities

The College of Health Professions‘ Department of Nursing — led by Bonnie Fuller, Beth Crusse and Lori Armstrong — received a grant for $1.65 million over five years to expand nursing degree completion education through the associate-to-bachelor’s (ATB) degree completion program.

“It is exciting to be recognized for our innovative approaches to providing avenues for registered nurses to acquire their baccalaureate degree in nursing,” said Fuller. “Towson U Nursing has been a leader in designing and offering the associate to bachelor’s dual degree enrollment program with CCBC and Hagerstown Community Colleges, which has served as a model for other programs in the state.”

TU’s nursing department was the first educational program in Maryland to offer the ATB program, where students can pursue associate and bachelor’s degrees concurrently.

“TU Nursing is committed to collaborating with others in the nursing education and healthcare communities to provide high quality education for registered nurses,” Fuller continued, “so that we can make progress towards meeting the IOM recommendations of having 80% of the nursing workforce with a baccalaureate degree by the year 2020.”

The grant will provide resources to enhance retention of adult, diverse and non-traditional nursing students. Faculty will also use it to develop a more efficient, innovative curriculum design involving web-hybrid and online courses.

“We meet the needs of a variety of diverse students who wish to pursue their baccalaureate degrees,” Fuller noted. “This MHEC grant validates what we do and allows our program to expand our degree completion initiative into more areas throughout north, west and central Maryland.”